Mahan's Visit: Market, Bridge, and Change of Plans

Actual date of this event: 1-2 June

After a really long day on Friday, Jill, Ryan, Luke and I had a pretty slow start. We didn't have any reason to get to the city by a certain time in the morning, so we took our time getting out the door. We eventually got moving around noon.

We headed to Borough Market first which is located at London Bridge station. We strolled pushed & shoved through the market for a little bit. The market is very crowded, especially in certain areas. Ryan was careful walking through, and we were careful to have to his back. We weren't far from Tower Bridge, so we took a bus to the bridge. This was my second time seeing the bridge up close, but I was looking for something in particular: a chimney. The bridge is lined with street lights with the poles painted blue. One of the poles is a chimney rather than a light. It was used back in the day to keep the guards who were guarding the Tower of London warm. Random fact, yes it is. Anyway, we walked along the bridge taking pictures while looking at the skyline and the River Thames.

The pole on the right is the Tower Bridge chimney.

We had a tour scheduled for 3:20 which began at the London Eye, so we got on a bus to take us to that general area. We had some time, so we got a drink at a pub while we waited. Turns out that our tour was having route problems due to some marches having to do with the Woolwich machete incident. Luckily, we were given the option to get a refund which we took advantage of. It was irritating, but thankfully we didn't plan our whole day around this tour. We took some terrific pictures of the Parliament building from across the river though!

Duck Tour bus... 45 min on land then drives into the water and tours for 30 min.

We found ourselves back in Leicester Square, walking by M&M World again, but we refrained from entering and only smelled the chocolate from outside of the building. For the rest of the day, we had some drinks, had an Italian dinner, had some more drinks, and then made our way back home for the night.

They refuse to take a good picture. So I refuse to NOT share this picture with you.

On Sunday morning, it was such a terrific day! Jill and I got up for another jog, and I took her by the Wimbledon tennis area. I knew Ryan wouldn't be interested in that, so I decided our jog would be a good time to go by that area. When we got back from our jog, the boys were actually awake! We all decided take it even easier than Saturday and stay around Wimbledon rather than go into the city. We found a place where we could enjoy a small lunch while sitting in the sun. Then, we went to the shopping center (called Centre Court. Get it? Centre court. Tennis. Get it?) to get some frozen yogurt. We were all so tired and exhausted that we couldn't even enjoy the beautiful weather. We went back to the flat and watched a movie with the doors wide open to let in the fresh air. Around 4pm, Jill and Ryan needed to leave for the airport.

We had a really great weekend with them, and we are so glad they came to see us! Luke and I have been discussing when our first visit back to Aberdeen will be - hopefully not during dip-n-dot season! I hope that one day you can come visit Luke and I in London because we would LOVE to have you :-)

RANDOM FACT:
The Tower Bridge was painted red, white and blue for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and received a face-lift beginning in 2008 for the Summer Olympics.